Moniz, speaking at Columbia University’s new Center on Global Energy Policy at the School of International and Public Affairs, backed into the carbon price discussion. Moniz’ agency is working with OMB on “speeding appliance energy efficiency” and is preparing to issue a new rule on microwave ovens. Moniz noted almost in passing that the microwave rule will include the first “interagency panel price on carbon” of $36 a ton.

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Using knowledge about command and execution centers in the brain, researcher were able to establish a brain interface in which one person was able to make another person move his fingers. The command was properly interpreted in one brain and then sent to another brain and successfully executed. The future will be an interesting place.

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Law-and-order hits a high-water mark. Being too tough on small crimes can be really expensive and these days we simply can no longer afford it. Especially when there are more effective ways to deal with the problem that are actually cheaper than incarceration.

Several clinical trials have shown that low doses of ibogaine taken over the course of a few weeks can greatly reduce cravings for heroin and other drugs. There was extensive research on it in the 1990s, with good evidence of safety in animals and a handful of studies in humans. The US National Institute on Drug Abuse invested over $1 million, but then abandoned the project in 1995. A study had shown that at high doses, ibogaine caused some brain cell degeneration in rats. Lower doses similar to those used in human addiction trials showed no such effect, however.

This idea that innovation flourishes in the private sector isn't so much. True wealth-creating innovation comes from government investment in basic research. Seventy-five percent of the new drugs come from government-funded research. Perhaps we need a better mechanism by which the government well is reimbursed for the research that leads to great wealth in the private sector.

The Cato Institute has a study out that says it pays better to be on welfare than it does to work. Here's why it is total bunk. Very few qualify for all the programs. Single folks don't get all that much. And many programs have a sliding scale so working isn't excessively penalized. Nonetheless, programs could be designed better to remove what poverty traps still remain.

Friday, August 23, 2013

Here’s what we know about the rich: They have a lot more money than everyone else, and they have more money than everyone else by a larger margin than they used to. Why is that? They like to tell themselves it’s because they are morally and intellectually superior, but there is not a whole lot of evidence to back that up. People usually end up rich because they were born or raised with certain environmental advantages. One of the biggest advantages you can be born with, these days, is rich parents. And one of the biggest advantages rich parents pass on to their offspring — let’s say the second-biggest, after “money” — is the sense of entitlement necessary for an entirely unaccomplished rich person to coast through life without constantly feeling crippling guilt.

Friday, August 16, 2013

The establishment clause means that you can't single out Muslim religious laws for discrimination. If you are going to rule out Muslim religious laws, you have to rule out the religious laws of all other religions as well. Why do they insist on wasting everyone's time with this? Because they just can't keep their bigotry under wraps anymore. In the long run, that should be a good thing. The bad guys have self-identified themselves for easy recognition.

Imagine major aircraft parts, like wings, assemble like chain mail from small interlocking components. Manufacturing would resemble 3D printing. The assembling parts could even shift their shape and retain their original strength.

Search This Blog

QOTD

In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.--Oscar Wilde

In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations. --Iroquois Confederacy Maxim

Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it's only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential. --Barack Obama

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. --Barack Obama

Countless lives were saved when I decided not to become a nurse. --Mildred Walton

The secret to a long marriage is to take care of your health.--Mildred Walton